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My blog has been changed to make it more appealing for those who have New England ancestors and want to see the area through photos. Things I’ll include are typical white New England churches, libraries showing their genealogical collection, historical societies, cemeteries, war memorials, in general, anything to do with history.

For four years I’ve blogged mostly about my personal genealogy in New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire), New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. I still will, can’t forget my own roots.

Please check out the labels on the right side for articles. The header tabs at the top are a work in progress.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Follow Friday -- The Librarian's Guide to Genealogical Services and Research

One of my favorite "how to do" books covering genealogy was written for librarians, not genealogists. Before you rush out to buy it, let me tell you, it is pricey, Amazon has the paperback for $85, it was printed in 2004, and it is a little dated concerning web sites. However, they do mention google, which surprised me. The best thing would be to use www.worldcat.org and see if one of the 241 libraries that carry it is at a location near you.

When the book was first published, I used it a lot for the classes I was teaching to beginner genealogists. I especially liked the CD in which you could print out great census forms, and various checklists. Since this was 2004, I doubt the CD would work with new operating systems since XP, but it could. As the title states, the book is for librarians, but it could be given to a researcher in need of help.

The Table of Contents has chapters covering: Starting an Organized Search, Starting Research and 10 other topics. There is also a list of figures, such as: Pedigree Chart, Family Group Sheet, Research Log and Ancestor Interview Form, all basic forms. However, I particularly liked the Federal Census Chronology for a set period of time, like the years 1790-1860, 1870-1900. All those years are printed on one page, which makes it easy to view a person and or family.

Another chart I liked, and had never seen before is, "Where to Look First for Genealogical Data" each page is broken down into a time frame, such as 1850 - 1900, 1900 - 1950, each with the types of records you should be locating. For instance, the first places to look for the period of 1850 - 1900 are, the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census, Ellis Island database, Civil War Pension Applications, State death indexes, Probate records, birth-marriage-death records, cemetery records, etc. Sometimes it is nice having a list right in front of you. Of course, this list is different than the one for the 1950-2000 period, which doesn't have any censuses listed!

Unfortunately, I couldn't locate the author to get permission to post a few examples, as his web page was down. The publisher has yet to respond to my email. Note: He contacted me and gave permission. See next post.

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About Me

I've been a retired, quiet, genealogy fanatic for 27 years. It's a hobby I do for fun and to help others.
Why not use the Search My Blog feature (directly below) to put in some key words. If you wish to contact me, please write at: Barbara.trees4u@gmail.com.